


your life was new (but you waited far too long)

by xumyuho



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-18 09:17:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4700573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xumyuho/pseuds/xumyuho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The high school-au where Junhui thinks he's getting to know the sweet kindhearted bullied kid, but ends up dating an Very Disrespectful Kid (with rumoured cannibalistic tendencies) </p><p>(or the high school-au nobody asked for, but got written nonetheless.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	your life was new (but you waited far too long)

**Author's Note:**

> yeah well. another junhao fic? fight me, meet me in the streets [rips off shirt]  
> this thing did not take any other form no matter how hard i've tried to shape it into something very different, but I hope it's still a good read. 
> 
> Junhui is around 18 in this, and Minghao is 17! There's not much school involved, more just kids being kids and getting into fights and shoved into pools. Written after Adore U era and before Mansae era.

  
The bell rings in the school hallways, Jun suddenly wakes up with a jump in his seat in the stuffy classroom. As soon as his teacher leaves the room the boy gathers up his stuff and bolts out of the door.  Leaving the school building from the main entrance, he steps into the sun and regrets suddenly _everything_.   
  
The streets are eerily empty, as a heat wave had hit Junhui’s small hometown a couple of days ago, and nobody really found themselves willing to step outside into the scorching sun. Concrete roads could almost literally burn off your feet if you tried to walk barefoot, and every poor soul that held any love for itself opened all the windows and just stayed in front of the AC until sunset. Honestly that was all Jun was craving for too at this point.   
But for a kid whose summer vacation had just ended, god bless his soul, there was no such luxury, and Junhui had been just trying to live it through in his new school, and trying his best to adjust to the heat, new people and new places.  It had been relatively cool during summertime where he used to live before he moved, but it didn’t mean he hated the hot climate. He liked the way the place seemed like a ghost town after school was out and only people who had to go to or get off of work were walking about the streets. An old couple feeding the neighbourhood cats, and kids who actually still had the vigorousity to do so were playing with water guns.   
  
He’s walking down a road that has a tall wooden fence, surrounding the community pool area on the other side. It's his first time going home through this path. Jun never got to go visit the place, but has heard about it. The place shut down for the summer like just a week ago, but some kids are still allowed to have late birthday parties there so the pool hasn’t yet been emptied. Jun makes a longing face as he dreams of just jumping in, clothes and all. He’s sweaty _all over_ and it’s only couple of blocks from home. He wonders if the gates are open until he hears noises from the other side.  
  
There’s a loud splash, followed by laughter and talking which Junhui can’t quite make out. Three other kids from his school (same year as Jun, as he remembers them from classes) walk out of the gate leading to the pool area. The guys are relatively tall, and dressed up in identical khaki shorts and v-necks that make Jun’s nose scrunch up in disgust. Like textbook douchebags.They’re still snickering and patting each other on the back when they run across the road and disappear from Junhui’s view. Jun raises his eyebrow in confusion, and slowly walks over to the gate and peeks into the pool area.   
  
The place is silent. First he thinks there’s no one there, but then he can see someone grabbing onto the side of the closest pool and pulling themselves up from the water, slowly but surely. A boy, clearly younger than him, but probably only by a couple years. He has short bleached hair, long skinny limbs covered by baggy clothes that are now just sticking to his skin in a way that must feel incredibly gross. Jun feels a bit bad for the kid, up until he can see his face when the boy turns around.   
  
The kid’s face is the _literal_ definition of pissed off and ready to fight. He spits out pool water and runs his fingers through his hair, trying to keep them off of his eyes.  Jun’s breath catches in his throat for a second, as now he can also see the kid’s face clearly and he is _gorgeous_ what the _actual_ hell. All clear skin and long eyelashes, pink lips and pierced ears. And the intensity in his big, brown eyes is just fucking Jun up at this point. Even though the boy looks like he could kill a man with his bare hands, or probably all three of those that seemed to have shoved him into the pool, Jun is convinced the kid is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.   
  
The soaked boy gets on his knees on the edge of the pool and reaches in. For a second there Jun thinks there might be another person just drowning in the pool that he didn’t notice while he was shamelessly checking out the blonde without a care in the world, but can then see that he’s just reaching for his backpack that’s sadly floating just beyond the boy’s reach. Jun can see the kid swearing under his breath, losing his balance just seconds afterwards and pitifully falling right back into the pool with a splash.   
  
The blonde is now swearing his heart out in a volume loud enough for the older to hear him while trying to swim with his backpack, and Jun can’t hold in his quiet laughter. The kid climbs out again, looking absolutely exhausted and just throws the bag onto the ground like everything was exclusively the thing's fault. He kicks off his shoes that carry like half of the pool's water in them, and peels off his wet socks too with a disgusted grimace. Jun smirks and steps in through the gate, walking towards the boy.  
  
He immediately catches the kid’s attention, though Jun thinks he’s expecting him to be one of the jerkfaces that shoved him into the water. When the blonde realizes Jun’s someone new entirely, he relaxes a bit but still seems wary.   
  
“You okay?” Junhui walks to the other edge of the pool, off to the opposite side that the soaked boy is settled on. He offers a smile, though the kid just keeps staring at him. .  
  
“I’m fine.”   
  
Jun kinda just wants to cry out loud because the kid’s voice is _so soft_ and mellow, in a way totally unexpected and in another fits him perfectly. Jun can feel his lips pulling into an even wider smile, and he settles to stand on the edge of the pool, careful of not falling in.   
  
“I thought about going in for a dip myself, but I’m sort of discouraged now that someone beat me to it.”  
  
The boy keeps staring at him, then scoffing, but Jun can see the small smile he’s hiding and it makes him feel he could easily run down those guys from before and beat the shit out of them, because this kid is so goddamn _cute_.   
  
“No need, since I wasn’t exactly planning on this dip. You can go ahead, I wont tell anyone,” the blonde says with a small smile, while stretching the front of his white t-shirt so its off of his damp skin. Jun finds himself a bit disappointed he isn’t taking the whole thing off.  
  
Jun wonders if it would be creepy to invite him over to his house, offer him a towel or something. But as that thought enters his head, the blonde gets up and starts gathering his stuff. He’s taller than he looks, but still shorter than Jun. His backpack is still dripping water, and let's not even discuss his shoes. They make horrible squishing noises when the blonde steps into them, that makes Jun want to cringe.   
  
“Hey,” Jun calls out when the kid starts to round the pool to walk out of the gate. He turns to look back at Jun, and he's dripping water  _everywhere,_ and Jun feels really bad for him now.  
  
“I’m Junhui. I.. go to their school? And I live couple streets down from here. If they give you trouble again just.. look for me, I guess.” He has no clue what he is trying to accomplish here. Literally, absolutely, _none._  
  
But the kid looks taken aback, in the way that for a moment his face is just.. open. There’s none of the hostility from before. But the moment is gone as soon as it arrives, and he is back to searching his face, now really trying to figure out if they know each other, or if Jun just has a hero complex of some kind.  
  
“.. I’m, uh. Minghao.”  
  
The kid– _Minghao_ , looks like he’s still processing why Jun would even talk to him, or even better, offering to help him out. Throwing one last glance at Jun he turns around before leaving, and Jun could swear he looks.. glad, in a way. He doesn’t say thanks, but doesn’t tell Junhui to go to hell either. He just.. quietly accepts whatever Junhui is offering him.   
  
Junhui stays there, on the edge of the pool until he can’t hear the gross squishing sounds from Minghao’s sneakers any longer.  
  
  
***  
  
  
It's about a week later when Junhui walks home by the tall wooden fence again. The heat wave has passed on, and replaced by heavy daily rainfall and thunderstorms, which Jun absolutely loves. He could stay up and stare at lighting for hours, and always sleeps like a baby when there's raindrops hitting his window during the night. He's carrying a red umbrella his mom told him to take, in case it rains again on his way home. There's a humid but cool breeze, carrying the smell of rain with it.  
  
There’s loud arguing on the other side of the fence, that mixes into the muffled sound of thunder in the distance. Jun doesn’t even get to take another step forward before there’s a loud splash, yelling and swearing. And then there’s Minghao dressed in a pair of baggy jeans and a hoodie, which were actually completely dry for a change, scrambling through the gate. The younger boy spots Jun, his face the clear definition of   _'I have fucked up. Please don’t let them kill me_.' Jun can hear someone who he assumes to be one of the khaki-fuckers splashing around in the pool and yelling after Minghao all the ways he’s going to beat the kid up until he's crying on the ground, while the others are probably coming after him.   
  
Junhui makes his way over to the kid, grabs him by the arm and just _runs_. They run down to the end of the street, then through a small alleyway until they reach the road on the other side. Minghao follows, and by the corner of his eye Jun can see the kid glancing after them to check if they were still being chased. Jun turns to the left, down to the street where he lives.   
  
He looks behind them, and doesn’t see anyone, but still runs all the way to their drive-way with Minghao in tow. He opens the gate and shoves the kid inside, closing it behind them. Junhui just collapses to the lawn, hidden from the road behind the fence surrounding the yard of his house, trying to catch his breath. Minghao falls down on his ass to the ground next to him as well, his chest heaving while he tries to gulp in air into his burning lungs. Junhui stares at the boy’s flushed and a bit sweaty face, admiring the blush rising on the boys cheeks, until Minghao looks up to meet his eyes.   
  
His eyes seem huge this close up. The colour is nice, Jun notices, a warm brown colour, rimmed by long but light eyelashes. And there's a lonely freckle near the corner of his left eye.  
_Cute._  
The boy seems to be a little uncomfortable and Junhui realizes he’s just blatantly staring the poor kid down without an apparent reason. Jun turns his gaze away, his cheeks feeling a bit warmer.  
**  
**“You okay? They didn’t do anything, did they?” **  
**  
Minghao shakes his head, and Jun realizes this is also the first time he's seen the boy's hair dry and down like this. It's longer than it looked while wet, covering the boy's eyebrows. It looks really soft. And probably smells good too.   
  
“Uh. No, no they didn’t. Just kinda dragged me in and then I.. ” Minghao looks down at his hands, first like he’s embarrassed but Jun can see the small, proud smile tugging at the kid’s lips, “.. I sort of kicked one of them in the shin and he fell into the water," which then stretches out into a wicked grin.  
  
Jun can’t help but just snort, then letting out a weak laugh.  This kid is probably going to destroy him too, one day.  
  
“Good for you.”  
  
  
***  
  
Today it's around the twentieth or thirtieth time Junhui walks past the high wooden fence, and Minghao is sitting against it and waiting for him, which has been happening a lot lately. The weather has been getting cooler, and the blonde was buried deep into a hoodie couple sizes too large. The boy is settled on the sidewalk, sitting down and listening to music through headphones, head nodding slightly to the rhythm. When he sees Junhui, he smiles and gets up, shoving the headphones into his backpack.   
  
At this point Junhui already knows many things about the kid. Things he learned that day when they ran from the khaki-wearing jerkfaces and sat on Jun's yard for an hour just talking, or thing's he learned the week after that, when he ended up in an actual fight with one of the guys while telling them to leave the kid alone, and almost broke his nose but got away with only cuts and bruises.  Minghao helped him home and stayed with him until Junhui's nose stopped bleeding everywhere There were huge spots of red on Minghao's shirt afterwards, and Jun's mom didn't let him leave the house before she got to try wash the blood off. Minghao had spent the evening at their house, wearing one of Jun's shirts. And Jun had to pretend he didn't like the sight as much as he did.  
  
"Did you wait long?" Jun asks as the younger boy steps in to walk beside him.   
  
"Not really, no. You want to grab something to eat, though? I'm starving," Minghao looks at him, pleading with a fake pout. Jun snorts and nods. They start wandering towards the closest burger joint.  
  
He learned that Minghao was only a year younger than him, also that they went to the same school, and that the three guys had had it in for Minghao since last spring, over some girl who chose Minghao as her lab partner instead of the Khaki Alpha. He knew that Minghao felt responsible when the three guys started shit in the hallways of their school in front of everyone, and got angry when Jun never lost his chill. He told Jun they didn't have to hang out anymore, that Jun would be maybe just better off without Minghao as his friend, and he would understand. But most clearly he remembers the kid's happy face when he told him to shut the hell up and stop being so depressing, and bought him a soda from the vending machine.  
  
Two weeks after that, they were hanging out by the bleachers after school and got into another fight with the khaki-wearing fucks, who, sadly though, no longer wore any khaki since it was actually  really getting chilly outside. Jun and the guy he called Khaki Alpha started shoving at each other and everything just goes to hell from there. There's a lot of rolling around and punching, until the two other guys tried to pry Jun off of the one under him, and Minghao just decided he has had  _enough_ of this shit.   
That day Jun learned that Minghao was an actual _ruthless demon from hell_ and was scared of no man. He latched onto one of the triplets to get him off of Jun. Then the boy actually _bit_ one of the jocks in the arm when they tried to pin him down. Jun could only stare as the guy who now had a bite mark on his arm was shrieking in terror and Minghao just stood there, victorious. Which in turn scared the hell out of Jun, but kinda made it more clear to him that he had some _really_   weird feelings going on for the kid. And really intense ones, at that.   
  
In the end, Jun had ended up with another bloody nose and swollen lip bleeding into his mouth, the three jocks split the scene, scared shitless by the sudden change in Minghao's personality, hollering slurs and other creative things at the boys. The triplets left them alone after that. Though they did start a rumour that Minghao had cannibalistic tendencies.   
  
"You.. you fucking bit him." Jun just stares at the direction the guys disappeared into, still in disbelief.   
  
".. Yeah, I.. I guess." Minghao looks slightly grossed out himself, but not a bit less proud or giddy. He sits down next to Jun on the bleachers, spitting and making a face.  
  
".. Why didn't you like, I don't know, go all Cujo on them before this? Got them off of your case?" Jun asks quietly while wiping blood off of his nose, and sneaks a look at the younger boy beside him.   
  
Minghao stayed quiet for a while, and then he looked at Jun with a crooked smile.  
"Probably because you were there. And I felt like I needed to save your weak ass from utter destruction. You bring out the best of me, Wen Junhui." The mockery in his voice made Jun huff out and shove the kid in the arm.   
  
"Respect your elders, hellspawn." Minghao's laughter sounded like nothing he had ever really heard before. And Jun learned that the kid's wide smile of happiness was blindingly bright.  
  
That's the kind of smile he's looking at right now when they finally get their food, and Minghao almost rips the packet of chicken nuggets of the hands of the waiter. It's ridiculous how happy he gets at the sight of something to eat. Jun makes a face at the other boy's choice of food, chewing on his fries and glaring holes at the chicken nuggets.   
  
"You know they put like, absolutely  _everything_ from the chicken into those things?" Jun has never really found the appeal of eating something that has once been a whole animal, grinded into a mass that can be molded into the shape of a dinosaur, stuffed full of things to keep it fresh for atleast the next twenty years and then deep fried and served. But Minghao is already wolfing down the monstrosity, and mumbles something with his mouth full, with a shrug.  
  
Jun just scoffs and takes a sip from his drink, letting the kid just enjoy his gross meal.

 

He learned more things after he started to walk home from school with Minghao. First just like a couple of times a week. Which very quickly escalated into them waiting for each other after school almost every day. He got to know how Minghao was really good at dancing and athletic shit like that ( _he could do flips, like, how cool is that_ ), that they both had done martial arts at some point in their lives, and that they both had a thing for music.   
  
Jun learned things about himself too. How he could not stop thinking about Minghao, and about being as close to him as possible, that he wanted to constantly shower the younger boy in subtle touches and make him feel important. And he had been paying attention, so he also noticed the long looks Minghao kept giving him, and the smiles and laughs even at the most embarrassing jokes and dumbest puns Jun made. The way Minghao smiled at him whenever Jun talked about the things he wanted to do after graduating, or about his family. How he looked so ridiculously happy when Junhui introduced him to his new friends in school during lunchtime.  
  
Or the way the kid kept staring at his lips, even now, only to realize he had again missed completely on what Jun was saying.   
  
"What was that?" The blonde asks suddenly, ripping his gaze away from Jun's mouth to meet his eyes instead, tips of his ears turning red. Jun wanted to just smack the kid, because that was _so unfair._  
  
"Nothing. You ready to go?" The kid nods, they gather up their stuff and left.  
Jun starts to walk Minghao home, wandering around the neighbourhood. After a while they fall into a comfortable silence, though Jun's head was a mess. The older boy takes a deep, shaky breath and stopped a few houses away from Minghao's home. He really needed to do this now. Minghao notices that Jun isn't following him anymore and turns around, confusion apparent on his features.   
  
Jun meets those big brown eyes, face unwavering.   
  
"I need to talk to you about something."   
  
Minghao looks confused, but nods slowly anyway. He has grown this intense trust for Junhui and it's the _literal_ worst thing, how he looks at Jun like that. Like he would never hurt him.   
  
Not that Junhui ever would, not on purpose at least.  
  
"Okay."  
  
  
***  
  
Today Junhui is done counting how many times he has walked by the high wooden fence, since he has a feeling he is going to walk by it atleast a couple hundred more times. Minghao is once again waiting for him. It's now officially fall, the traces of summer almost completely gone from the view. Minghao again gets up as soon as he notices him, immidiately starting to talk about his day. Jun lets him and listens closely, sliding his hand into Minghao's own. They link fingers and walk like that all the way to Jun's house. There they are supposed to study but end up eating the leftover Italian food from the fridge and watching some breakdance videos that Minghao talks through, explaining everything to Jun like he's a little kid. How hard it is to do this, how difficult that is, and so on. The way he speaks, exitement and admiration loud and clear makes Jun's chest feel tight, and he pushes the laptop away and pulls the other boy close into a kiss.  
  
In the past weeks he learned other new things about Minghao. The one's that are probably his all time favourites. Like how he really freaked out when Jun suddenly said he wanted to talk, but still tried to keep his cool. That when you tell him things like "I like you" and "go out with me", his face goes pale but his ears turn bright red. And he looks a bit like he could cry when he says _yes_ , not just happy tears but to actually _wail_ , full out ugly sobbing. But he keeps it in, because he has a more masculine personality than one would think. He hates crying in public. He also stutters whenever he's really nervous, like that time he tells Jun he likes him too. He likes to hold hands and show Jun off, especially in school.   
Junhui also found out he was Minghao's first kiss. He himself is pretty damn proud of that first kiss. It was gentle, slow and careful, Jun's hands cupping Minghao's face and Minghao leaning in so Jun wouldn't need to bend down, since the older boy was taller than him. It was only a bit awkward, but mostly really great when it lasted, but then Jun realized they were standing on Minghao's doorstep and he quickly bailed before Minghao's parents could see him, the boy's laugh following him and his face burning red the whole way.  
  
But they got many other chances to kiss again, in more private and even more public. 

And now that Minghao is here, sitting across his lap on his bed, he knows this is one of his favourite ones. How Minghao looks like this, his lips red and swollen, cheeks flushed and hair an absolute mess from having Jun's fingers in it. Jun's hands travel up the younger boy's sides under his shirt, making the other shiver in his lap. His skin is smooth and warm under Jun's sure hands, that slide down again to grab the boy's hips. Minghao gasps, and rolls them slightly, getting Jun close to just _losing it._ The older kisses his way down from Minghao's mouth to his neck, kissing, nipping and occassionally biting down _hard_ into the skin, coaxing out a faint whimper from the boy sitting in his lap. Minghao is clinging onto Jun's shirt for dear life, letting his head lull back. Jun keeps working on the blonde's neck, then kissing his way back up and captures the younger boy's lips with his own. He smiles into the kiss, making the younger boy hum against his lips. Minghao's tongue is in his mouth, his cold hands sliding under Jun's shirt, and they're both half hard and everything is just _perfect_ in a way he has never experienced before.   
  
  
When Jun wakes up later, the clock tells him his  mom is gonna be back in 30 minutes and they have been sleeping for like 2 hours. He can't feel his arm that Minghao is currently sleeping on, the line of his body pressed against Junhui's own, their feet tangled together. The kid's face is hidden in the crook of Jun's neck, breath tickling the sensitive skin, and he's snoring softly and Jun feels like he's a little bit in love with him.   
  
  
Or a lot, perhaps, he wasn't one for defining everything. It was more fun that way.   
  
  
  
  
  
**  
**  
**  
**


End file.
